The floor replacement cycle for resilient flooring tile is long because among other reasons residential resilient tile is often difficult to remove and replace. The removability of fully adhered tile varies—sometimes it comes up with great difficulty, a small piece at a time—at best tile is removed with moderate difficulty in larger pieces or entire tile.
Further, residential resilient tile can be difficult to repair. Repair usually involves removing the tile in multiple pieces, scraping the floor, and respreading adhesive.
Also, residential tile can be difficult to recycle, since it usually comes up in pieces. These pieces are not easily collected and contained for shipping to a recycling plant. Additionally, as small pieces they are not easily identified as safely recyclable tile, possibly being non-vinyl tile or tile containing hazardous materials. The residential tile to be recycled may include an underlayment comprising materials not normally used to make tile.
With prior art residential tile, replacing the tile that has been removed requires additional subfloor preparation. This usually involves manual adhesive scraping, patching, and/or the installation of ¼″ plywood.
Another disadvantage of prior art resilient tile is that it is not easily customizable or themed.
An issue for the average do-it-yourselfer is that planning the tile job can be confusing. It may be difficult for the average homeowner to properly center and balance the tile in the room. Also, positioning and centering a rolled-out underlayment on the floor can be difficult if the room center marks are covered by an opaque underlayment.
Further, water can get trapped under the tile in wet areas. This is especially true when using adhesive tabs, i.e. discontinuous adhesive, to install the tile.
In order to make a floor that floats, the flooring pieces must be attached to each other. Inexpensive tile is usually thin and weak and not easily locked together via the edges. Tiles that are not affixed to the subfloor with full-spread glue can be prone to shifting due to foot pivoting and due to furniture movement.
Another issue with a floating floor is that installing tile on a floating underlayment on plywood or on an existing floor can lead to fatigue failure under chair wheels due to repeated flexing of the tile. Also, fatigue failure due to repeated flexing of the tile under chair wheels is enabled by and manifested at the tile joints. Further, dragging appliances over floating tile system can result in the tile or underlayment being torn.
Changing seasons cause the subfloor in typical residential construction to move with changing moisture levels. This movement can cause flooring to buckle due to shrinkage of the subfloor or tearing due to expansion of the subfloor.